This book contains 101 selected sermons of Rev. Dr. Abraham Philip. He has been in the ministry of the church for four and half decades. These are sermons which he used to preach at church services, in the seminary worship services where he has taught and at various conferences where he has given leadership. The author is a prolific writer who has numerous books to his credit. This is his sixth book published by Christian World Imprints, Delhi. Rev. Dr. Abraham Kuruvilla (Thayil house), a former Principal of the Mar Thoma Theological Seminary, has written in his Foreword to the author's previous book of sermons entitled: Euaggelion Sermons, Part-2 (Tiruvalla: CSS, 2025): Each sermon has exegetical and expository components with hints about the relevance of the text for Christian life in the contemporary world. The sermons are didactic in nature and help the readers to have a deeper appreciation of the world from which the biblical texts have arisen.
The author was born in 1954. He had his education at Asram High School, Perumbavoor; and Union Christian College, Aluva in Kerala. His theological studies were at LTC, Jabalpur, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, England; UTC, Bangalore and FFRRC, Kottayam. He served in parishes in Mumbai, Kolkata, UK, New Delhi, Trivandrum and Kottayam. He also served as the Director of Dr. Thomas Mar Athanasius Memorial Orientation and Research Centre, Kottayam (1989-94), taught at Mulanthuruthy MSOT Seminary (1993-96, 2001-02) and Mar Thoma Theological Seminary, Kottayam (2001-2019), FFRRC (2003 onwards). He is now retired from active service, and lives with his family at Kottayam.
It is four and a half decades since I have been in the ministry of the Church. I remember beginning my parish ministry in August 1979 at Santacruz Marthoma Church, Bombay (Mumbai). The first service that I conducted was a Holy Eucharist Service in English and the first sermon that I preached was also in English. The sermons in this book were written over the last five decades on different occasions at different places in India and abroad.
After my parish ministry at Bombay, I had the opportunity to serve in parishes in Calcutta (Kolkata), Trivandrum (Thiruvanathapuram), Kottayam and New Delhi. Then I began my ministry at the Dr. Thomas Mar Athanasius Memorial Orientation Centre at Kottayam as its director and also to teach at the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Theological Seminary, Mulanthuruthy near Ernakulam and then at the Mar Thoma Theological Seminary, Kottayam spanning more than two decades. Even today I have the opportunity to preach a few sermons in English annually at the Jerusalem Church Kottayam. Mostly, the sermons have been preached according to the Church Lectionary. In the 1990s, on the suggestion of Rev. Dr. T. M. Philip, the then Christava Sahitya Samithi (CSS) Secretary, I gave a couple of dozen Malayalam sermons to CSS for publication and they came out with the title Saswatha Margam (Eternal Way). Those days CSS used to print 2000 copies for an edition. All those books were sold out within a decade. Then during the first decade of this century I gave some sermons in English for publication and the book was entitled Eternal Words. The copies printed were also sold out. Then came two more books of sermons entitled: Words of Eternal Life and Enlightening Words of Truth during the second decade of this century. Then two books of sermons entitled Evangelion Prasamgangal 2020 Part 1 and Evangelion Prasamgangal 2020 Part 2 were published. These books contained sermons in Malayalam as per the church lectionary for the year 2020 of the Mar Thoma Church. This year in 2025 two more books entitled Euaggelion Sermons Part 1 and Part 2 containing sermons based on the prescribed Gospel portions in the Marthoma Church Lectionary for the year 2025 have been published by the CSS, Tiruvalla.
Some of these books are now out of print. Therefore, I thought that it would be good if some of those sermons, both old (out of print) and new, are made available to the wider public of Christendom by publishing one hundred and one selected sermons through Christian World Imprints, Delhi; as this publisher gives a greater coverage to them through Google etc. They could also make the copies available to anyone anywhere in the world. Hence this volume is made available.
I dedicate this book to my teachers in theological education especially to the (Late) Rev. Dr. M. V. Abraham, my guru, and to my students at the Mar Thoma Seminary, Kottayam (2001-2019), as well as MSOT Seminary, Mulamthuruthy (1993-96; 2001-02), and to the students and research scholars through FFRRC (2003-2025). I remember my theological student days at Leonard Theological College Jabalpur (1976-79), and my studies as a research scholar at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, England (1982-86), United Theological College, Bangalore (1998-99), and FFRRC, Kottayam (1999-2001). I also remember Perumbavoor Asram High School (1959-69) and Aluva Union Christian College (1969-76) where I had my basic and college education.
In this volume the sermons are divided into five sections namely: Sermons on texts from the Hebrew Bible, Sermons for Lent and Holy Week, General Sermons from the Gospels, General Sermons from other New Testament Books, and Advent Season sermons.
I take this opportunity to thank Christian World Imprints, Delhi for publishing this volume. I hope and pray that this volume will be one that will be beneficial to many who may come across this volume especially the students in the Indian Seminaries and theological colleges and the interested people anywhere in the world.
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